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At least three people gathering signatures for four initiatives backed by prominent Oregon conservatives said Thursday they were paid by the signature, instead of by the hour, in violation of state law.
The three plan to file complaints with the state Bureau of Labor and Industry, and have asked the Elections division of the Secretary of State's Office to investigate, according to Patty Wentz with Our Oregon, a progressive political advocacy group.

California voters flatly reject a proposed state government spending limit. Colorado voters decide to ease their state's spending cap, thus surrendering $3.7 billion in taxpayer refunds.
The vote in those two states could spell trouble for anti-tax groups who have been working on a measure that would clamp a tight limit on state and local government spending in Oregon.

DENVER -- For conservatives, it was painful to watch: A Republican governor teams up with Democrats on a plan to ease the nation's strictest cap on government spending and Colorado voters actually go for it by surrendering $3.7 billion in taxpayer refunds.
While many believe Tuesday's vote could hurt efforts to cap government spending in other states, some contend the campaign here offers important lessons to help supporters sell their proposals.

Oregon, with its wide-open initiative system, is typically fertile and early ground for new ideas making dents in the national political consciousness.
So it's not entirely surprising to see groundwork being laid here for a November 2006 ballot initiative that would require the state's 198 school districts to funnel at least 65 percent of their funding directly to the classroom, to pay for items like teacher's salaries and benefits, computers and after-school programs.

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Colorado's vote to suspend its taxpayer bill of rights for five years drew a mixed reaction Wednesday in Oklahoma, where a similar plan is the subject of an initiative petition drive.
''We hope the lessons of Colorado's failed budget experiment will send up a bright red flag to all Oklahomans as they face signature collectors peddling TABOR outside grocery stores and football stadiums this fall,'' said David Blatt of Community Action Project, a Tulsa-based anti-poverty group.

DENVER — Colorado voters have agreed to suspend the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, the nation’s strictest government spending limit, and give up more than $3 billion in taxpayer refunds to help the state bounce back from a recession.
The vote essentially suspends a key part of TABOR, a model conservatives hold up for other states to emulate.
“It certainly makes our hill harder to climb,” said Cameron Sholty, a spokesman for FreedomWorks, which campaigned against loosening TABOR’s fiscal reins.

PORTLAND— Opponents of a proposed ballot measure aimed at capping state spending have quietly filed a competing measure that would exempt schools, police and social services from any voter-passed spending limits.
The effort, backed by the Oregon Education Association, the state's largest teachers union, is an early, peremptory shot in what's shaping up as one of the defining battles of the 2006 political season.

SALEM, Ore. — A proposal to clamp a tight limit on state spending could become a key issue in the 2006 Oregon's governor's race, especially for Republican candidates who will have to figure out how to defend the idea to different election-year audiences.
Anti-tax activists led by Washington, D.C-based FreedomWorks recently launched an initiative campaign to ask Oregon voters to adopt a spending limit similar to one in Colorado, which is considered the nation's toughest.

As Oregon's leading advocate of smaller government and lower taxes, Russ Walker is preparing to fight a political war on two fronts in the 2006 elections.
Walker, executive director of the Oregon chapter of FreedomWorks - formerly known as citizens for a sound economy, said his group is laying the groundwork for a ballot measure to restrict the ability of unions to tap their members' paychecks for political contributions.

WASHINGTON -- Privatization foes in the Social Security debate have tried to pressure members of Congress by following them in waffle and duck costumes. Now supporters of private investment accounts are preparing a Capitol Hill snow job.
Dozens of college students who support the accounts plan to spend Wednesday afternoon lobbying members of the Senate Finance Committee -- after a news conference staged amid imported snow and ice sculptures in the summer haze hanging over the capital.